Here we are folks! The number 1 position on my personal countdown of “The 100 Most Beautiful Rock Stars on the Planet” belongs to Mike Inez. Mike is the bassist for Alice In Chains. I know what some of you are thinking right now, “Anna said in her first blog she never got into the whole grunge movement…”, and you would be correct. However, Inez was on the scene long before grunge.

The first high profile band he played in was Ozzy Osbourne. He then joined Alice In Chains, and later played with other acts including Slash’s Snakepit, Black Label Society, and Heart. I will be the first one to admit that I cannot call myself a true Mike Inez fan if I haven’t heard all of his music. So I broke down and went on iTunes and purchased the latest Alice In Chains album The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here solely for research purposes, of course, since I never was a grunge fan. I listened to the whole album and maybe, just maybe I have a favorite song. And perhaps I had supposed said song on repeat for almost six hours. And hypothetically I may have revisited iTunes for Black Gives Way To Blue but who knows, right? I mean, I never got into that whole grunge movement. It simply had to be done – for research purposes, of course.

So why is Mike in the number one spot? Among many reasons, it’s his optimism. To be honest, this is the sole reason I blindly purchased The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here as opposed to bumming it from somebody else. I figured if it completely sucked, it wouldn’t really matter because I was still supporting him regardless if it was just one album (well, eventually two, and fairly insignificant to anybody else but me). I did something I haven’t done for any other artist so far, and that is I searched tirelessly for negative stuff on Mike and found nothing. I even read comment sections of articles and nobody had anything bad to say about him anywhere. Does that mean he is perfect? Of course not; however, it does prove the age old saying, “You reap what you sow”. Mike is a very positive, upbeat person in every article, photo, and video I came across. These qualities are infectious by anybody who possesses them.

Alice In Chains will be touring this summer, beginning in July. Visit http://www.aliceinchains.com for tour dates and band merch. There are already many sold out shows so reserve your tickets in advance.